Burger King Windows Smashed: Prank Caller Convinces Workers To Break Windows Because Of ‘Gas Leak’
Burger King windows were smashed by employees in Minnesota after a prank caller convinced them they needed to do so because of a “gas leak,” CNN is reporting.
The Minnesota Burger King was the latest fast food location to fall victim to the prankster, or pranksters.
The prankster, or group of pranksters, have convinced employees at three Burger King locations, one Wendy’s, and one Jack In The Box to smash their windows. The pranksters’ modus operandi is always the same: a caller, pretending to be from a local fire department, asks for a manager, and then convinces the manager that there’s a gas leak, and they need to smash the windows to prevent an explosion.
The latest fast food restaurant to fall victim to the prank was a Burger King in Coon Rapids, Minnesota.
Workers smash windows at Burger King, all because of a prank: https://t.co/CvkF42g9rK pic.twitter.com/7lzEG8Fs24
— Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) April 11, 2016
At about 9:30 p.m. Friday night, according to Minneapolis’ Star Tribune, a caller, claiming to be a fire department official, told the manager that there was a dangerous level of explosive gas in the restaurant, and that employees needed to smash the windows or else the whole building would explode.
According to police spokesperson Tom Hawley, the prankster did a great job of convincing the Burger King manager to smash the windows.
“He (was) very convincing. He seemed to have knowledge of fire suppression systems and acted like he was monitoring the building remotely.”
What happened next was so startling that employees at a neighboring convenience store called the police. The manager and employees fled the Burger King, went to their cars to grab tire irons, then returned to smash every last window in the building.
Sgt. Rick Boone described what officers witnessed when they arrived at the scene.
“Officers arrived and found that the manager and employees of the Burger King were smashing out the windows. The manager explained they’d received a phone call from a male who identified himself as a fireman who said there were dangerous levels of gas in the building and they had to break out all the windows to keep the building from blowing up. The manager was frantic and actually believed the building was going to blow.”
Employees at the convenience store recorded the Burger King employees smashing their windows on cell phone video.
Of course, there was no gas leak, as authorities later determined, and the employees were taken in by a hoax.
Fortunately, other than one employee suffering minor cuts, no one was injured.
In a statement, the Coon Rapids Fire Department made it clear that no employee of the department will ever call you and tell you to smash your windows.
“Calls for service come into the 911 dispatch system from someone calling to report a problem, and only then do police, fire and emergency responders respond. In the event you receive a call from someone claiming to be from a police or fire agency asking you to take some kind of action, consider it a prank and call 911 immediately.”
Unfortunately, the Minnesota Burger King isn’t the only fast food place to have fallen for the windows hoax. Restaurants in Arizona, Oklahoma, and California have also fallen victim to the hoax.
This is not the first time a prank caller has convinced a fast food employee to commit a crime under false pretenses. In 2006, according to ABC News, Walter Nix was convicted of calling a Kentucky McDonald’s and, claiming to be a police officer, convincing the manager to conduct a strip search on a female employee.
If caught, the prankster who convinced Burger King employees to smash their store’s windows faces felony charges.
[Image via Shutterstock/Ken Wolter]
